Convergence
by Risa1
Summary: As if having dealt with one Cole wasn't enough, the Charmed Ones now have to deal with Coles from other dimensions... *New: Chapter 3 (finally!)*
1. Chapter 1

Convergence

By Risa

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Charmed (I wouldn't be slogging away in school if I did) – no copyright infringement intended. 

Author's Note: I was trying to work on LoC but I just couldn't shake off the idea for this story. I will go back to it though. :-) For now, I hope that you'll enjoy this. This takes place after Centennial Charmed.

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Chapter One

            It was three in the morning when the crying started. 

But what woke Piper up was the half-full milk bottle dropping onto her head. She glared at the crying baby before turning to her sleeping husband. "It's your fault," she said accusatorily as she shoved him. 

"Hm?" Leo said, stirring. His eyes slowly blinked open, still blurry with sleep. "What's my fault?"

"It's _your_ genes," Piper said, pointing at the crib.

Leo stared at his wife, confused.

"Our darling son thought that crying wasn't enough to get my attention. He decided to back up his message with some force," Piper said sarcastically, waving the bottle.

Leo tried not to laugh.

"At least one of us is amused," Piper grumbled as she got out of bed. As she picked up her son she felt her irritation faded away. "What am I going to do with you?" she said, with a small smile on her face, sighing.

"I'll go get the milk," Leo said, sitting up.

"I'll get it," Piper said, as she placed their son gently in his arms. "You watch him for a while." She walked to the door and turned to look at father and son. _So this is what happiness looks like_, she thought.

When Piper walked into the kitchen, she realized that someone had left the TV on. Absently, she was about to turn off the TV when she noticed someone familiar. 

Cole.

"Leo!" she shouted as she continued watching, unable to tear her eyes away from the screen. It was a news report about a fire and there, in the background among the crowd of people, was Cole.

"What happened?" Leo said as he orbed into the kitchen, tense and worried.

"Please tell me that I'm just imagining things," she said, pointing at the screen.

Leo's eyes widened. "It can't be…" he said softly.

Just then, Phoebe and Paige entered the kitchen, still half asleep. "What's all the noise about?" Phoebe mumbled, blinking in an attempt to wake herself up.

Then she saw what Piper and Leo were looking at. "No," she said, backing away from the TV. She shook her head furiously. 

"No. It isn't... It couldn't… This can't be happening again…"

"Cole?" Paige said blankly. "But he's dead!"

"Obviously someone forgot to tell him that," Phoebe said in annoyance, unsettled and tense. Her mind was in a whirl. _Please, I don't want to go through all of this again… I've had enough. I don't want any more of this… "Didn't _someone_ say that he was gone for good?"_

"He was supposed to be!" Paige said defensively.

"But since when does Cole stay dead like he's supposed to?" Piper said wryly.  

"Ok, let's slow down for a minute here," Leo said, trying to calm the three sisters down. "We don't know anything yet. It could just be someone who looks like him.

"Maybe," Phoebe said, taking a deep breath, trying to relax. "So what do we do?"

"Well, if it was Cole, he probably had some reason for being at the fire. We'll call Darryl tomorrow – see if there was anything out of the ordinary about this fire. Leo, could you check if anyone up there knows anything about Cole coming back?" Piper said. 

Leo nodded, as he orbed out.

"There's nothing else that we can do right now," Piper continued to her sisters. "You guys go get some sleep," she said, sighing as the crying started again. "I have to go feed the little one upstairs."  

"Like I'm going to be able to get any more sleep tonight," Phoebe said under her breath as she and Paige left the kitchen. She fervently hoped that Leo was right, that this was all just a false alarm. _When will I be free from you, Cole? What do I have to do to get you to finally leave me alone?_

"I wasn't assigned that case," Darryl told them when they called the next morning, "but I'll see what I can find." They tried to get on with their normal activities as they waited for him to call but they were too tensed, too worried. The "what if"s seemed to get wilder and wilder as time passed. It was almost a relief when Darryl's call finally came.

"We still don't know the exact cause of the fire," he said. "Everyone's baffled."

"Who owned the house?" Phoebe asked.

"The house was owned by Frank Morau. Married, had two kids. All of them died in the blaze," the last was said in a tone of restrained anger and weariness.

"Anything unusual about them?"

"Nothing, just your average family. No records or reports to suggest that they were anything more than ordinary."

"Thanks, Darryl," Phoebe said, hanging up as she told her sisters what she had found out. 

Piper sighed. "I've got a bad feeling about this," she said.

"Mysterious fire that breaks out for no apparent reason? It just _stinks_ of something demonic," Paige added. 

"Which just supports the idea that Cole's involved somehow," Phoebe said grimly. "We should check out the scene of the fire, see if there's anything useful that we can dig up."

Piper nodded. "I'll stay here to watch the baby. You guys go on ahead." 

It was a short drive to the Morau house. The street was quiet and peaceful, with the occasional sounds of children playing. It seemed like a typical middle-class neighbourhood. For a moment, they stood on the street, staring at the ruins of the blaze, apprehensive and cautious. "C'mon," Paige said finally, walking in.

The fire had destroyed most of the house. Yet everywhere there were signs of the comfortable, cosy home that it once was, which made its loss more poignant. Phoebe and Paige walked around carefully, looking for any sign of the supernatural.

Then they saw, amongst the debris, a man bending over to scoop up some of ashes on the ground. He had his back facing towards them as he stood up and slowly released the ashes, letting them swirl with the breeze back to the ground. 

There was something hauntingly familiar about that man. A sense of foreboding came over Phoebe. Somehow, she knew that the moment he turned, the moment she saw his face, everything in her life would change. Slowly, he turned, revealing a face that the Halliwells knew all too well.

"Cole," Phoebe said softly. The shock quickly turned to anger. "What the hell are you doing here? Why can't you just stay dead?"

A disoriented and blank look came over the man's face. "I think you've mistaken me for someone else – "

"Don't play games with me!" Phoebe shouted in annoyance. "I've had enough."

"I'm not sure what happened but – " the man began, as he walked towards them. 

"Just stay where you are," Paige said warningly, as she orbed a knife into her hand. 

The man stopped and raised his hands in an attempt to signal to them that he meant no harm.  "Look, I'm not going to hurt you," he said. "I'm not Cole – or rather, not the Cole you're talking about."

"Sure," Phoebe said sarcastically, "And I'm Cleopatra."

Cole ignored the comment and continued to speak, slowly and carefully, as if trying to soothe a frightened animal. "I mean, my name _is Cole, but I'm not the Cole you knew – I'm from a different dimension."_

Paige scoffed. "Oh, that's pathetic. You actually expect us to believe that?"

Cole sighed. His day had already started off badly. Now it looked like it was going to get worse. "I know it's a little difficult – "

"A _little?" _

"All right, _pretty_ difficult," Cole said, still trying to calm the sisters down. "Look, you have to believe me. I don't know what happened between you and your Cole, but I'm definitely not him."

"Is there any way we can find out for sure?" Paige whispered to Phoebe. "We weren't able to sense anything when he became the Source."

Phoebe remained silent for a moment, deep in thought. "There's a spell that will allow us to 'see the evil within'," she said slowly. "We used it on a pair of sunglasses once so that we could ID the Source. Give Piper a call and ask her to get the spell." She continued to watch Cole warily as Paige made the call. "One wrong move and I swear that they'll still be picking up bits of you a hundred years from now," she muttered.

After Piper told Paige the spell, they quickly cast it over Phoebe's sunglasses which Phoebe put on.

Nothing.

"Whatever he is, he's not evil," Phoebe said as she passed the sunglasses to Paige. 

"So what do we do now?" Paige whispered.

"We'll bring him back to the Manor; see what he has to say. If he's lying…" Phoebe trailed off, her voice grim and threatening. _This better not be another one of your tricks, Cole. "All right, come with us," she said to Cole shortly as she abruptly turned and walked towards the car._

"So? What did you find?" Piper asked impatiently as she met them at the door. Then she saw Cole. "What's _he doing here?" Piper asked, her eyes narrowing in suspicion as she held her son protectively. _

"To explain himself," Phoebe said, carefully avoiding eye contact with Cole. "Don't worry, we checked. Whatever he is, he isn't evil. For now at least."

Piper was about to protest when her son giggled and reached his tiny arms towards Cole. Cole smiled gently at him, his gaze soft. For a moment, Phoebe saw the Cole that she knew before things got so bad between them. And she realized, for the first time, how much she had missed that Cole. Piper's eyes darted between her baby and Cole in confusion. They seemed to be connecting on some unseen level. "What's going on? What are you doing to him?"

"He's like me, a Keeper," Cole said quietly.

Three pairs of confused eyes looked back at him. Cole sighed. "There are many other worlds apart from this one. Some of them are very similar to each other, others can be very different. Each world has a Keeper to maintain the stability of their world and prevent people of other worlds from interfering in the events and affairs of that world. Passive observers, refuge-seekers, those we're fine with but some of the other stuff…" his face darkened.

Piper looked down at her son and felt her heart ache. She had hoped that somehow he might be spared the kind of burden of responsibility she and her sisters carried as Charmed Ones. She gently caressed the cheek of her son. _He's so small and he's already got such a road ahead of him…_

"He won't be alone," Cole said softly, reading the look on Piper's face. "I'll be here and I'll do as much as I can for him."

"Wait," Phoebe said, shaking her head to clear it, trying to make sense of everything. "If you're a Keeper of some other world, then what are you doing here? How can you help if you've got your own world that needs you?"

Cole sighed, his face deeply etched with remembered grief. "My world's gone – destroyed. I don't have a home to return to anymore. As for why I'm here," his expression turned to one of determination and tightly suppressed anger, "I'm here to stop him. Stop him from doing the same to this world."

"Who?"

"Cole."

*~ To Be Continued ~*

Author's Note: The idea of one's doppelganger hunting down the other doppelgangers and destroying the worlds they live in was inspired by the Vertigo comic "The Books of Magic". 


	2. Chapter 2

Convergence

By Risa

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

Author's Note: Hopefully this chapter doesn't get *too* confusing… I wanted to include so many things, which is partly why this chapter took so long to write. Anyway, I hope that you'll enjoy this!

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Chapter Two

"What? You mean there's _another_ Cole running around?" Paige said, startled. "There's just no way of getting rid of you guys, is there?" 

            "This feels like a bad science-fiction movie," Phoebe groaned, leaning back in her chair and closing her eyes in exasperation. 

            "But why's he doing this?" Piper asked, baffled.

            "I don't know," Cole said, his old frustration rising once more. "I don't know anything about what he is, where he comes from…"

            Just then, Leo orbed into the living room. "I don't like this!" he shouted as he glared upwards. 

            "And hello to you too," Paige remarked.

             "That was meant for Them," Leo said sheepishly. Then he saw Cole, who was looking at him curiously. "You're here already," he said dispassionately. "Good. Saves us the trouble of having to look for you."

            Four pairs of eyes stared back at him blankly.

            "The Elders said that we'll have to work with you on this," Leo explained, his expression wary. "But one wrong move – " 

            "Okay, I've had enough," Cole interrupted, frustrated. "Look, I have no idea what the Cole in this world did to you but I'm _sick_ of all this suspicion. _I am not that Cole_." He paused, taking a deep breath to calm himself. "The Coles of all the different worlds start out with similar souls, but that isn't the end of the story. The kind of person that we are is also the result of what has happened in our lives. We _aren't_ carbon copies of each other."

            Leo sighed. "Perhaps I was overreacting," he admitted, the weariness and tension obvious in his face. "After all we had been through with Cole and all the chaos that's going on right now…" He sat down and leaned back in the sofa in an attempt to relieve some of his tiredness.

            "Leo, what's wrong?" Piper asked in concern. She had rarely seen him look this exhausted. 

            "The barriers between heaven and hell seem to breaking down. We've got demons and all sorts of other stuff trying to invade heaven. All the Whitelighters have been called back to try and keep them out."

            "So that's how he's doing it this time round!" Cole exclaimed. 

            "Care to translate that?" Paige said impatiently.

"Well, he's used quite a few ways to destroy the different worlds. This time, he's decided to break down the barrier between heaven and hell. See, heaven and hell are like two opposing forces – they've got to be kept separate. If you force them together before the time is right…"

            "Backlash and the world as we know it goes boom," Phoebe finished bleakly. "Great. This is just great." 

            "Hey, it's not so bad. I've chased him through more than ten worlds and this is the closest I've got to stopping him," Cole said, with a small, bitter smile on his face. He had felt so tired, so helpless, so alone, chasing his double from world after world without any success. He would have given up or gone insane a long time ago if it wasn't for Phoebe.

            _"You're our only chance left to stop him from doing this again."_

            "Cole?"

He blinked in confusion, as his mind was pulled back to the present. Piper looked at him in concern. "I asked if you had any ideas about how to stop Cole," she said slowly and gently. She had caught the look in his eyes and knew that whatever he was thinking about, it was obviously something that brought him a great deal of pain. She had seen that look often enough on their Cole's face. That pain, that hurt, that longing… She began to wonder just how different this Cole really was.

"The barriers are usually held up by crystals in certain locations – do you think those Elders you were talking about will know where they are?" Cole asked, thinking aloud.

Leo nodded.

"Good. Then we'll know his location and we can end this once and for all," Cole said with grim, determined finality, his brown eyes dark and cold.  

"You're planning some sort of kamikaze attack, aren't you?" Phoebe asked accusingly. She _knew_ that look, that I'll-do-this-even-if-I-die-trying look. The depth of fear and concern that she felt for this Cole was disconcerting. She barely knew him. Maybe it was just because of his resemblance to her Cole, but even that wasn't right. She had hardly felt anything for Cole for so long… 

"What I do is my own concern," he said coldly, as he glared at the rest of them, daring them to question him and his actions. He didn't want to put them at risk with their involvement. It didn't matter if he died, as long as he brought his double along with him. He should have been destroyed with his world anyway.

"While you're in our world what you do _is our concern," Piper said firmly. "You're talking about the fates of everyone in this world – we should at least know what you're trying to do."_

Cole sighed. "There's a world that's dying," he began reluctantly. The Keeper of that world and I placed a barrier over that world – you can still get in, but you can't get out. All I need is body contact with my double and I'll be able to get both of us there."

"No, there has to be some other way," Phoebe said, rejecting Cole's idea immediately. _I just don't want anyone innocent to die_, she told herself, _that's perfectly normal. She ignored the small traitorous voice in her head that said, _So___ why are you so concerned about justifying your actions to yourself?_

"We don't have time to _find_ another way!" Cole said, raking his hand through his hair in frustration. 

Piper saw the stubborn glint in Phoebe's eyes and knew that unless she intervened, this issue wouldn't be resolved without a fight. "Leo, you'll need some time to get the location from the Elders, right?"

Leo nodded. "Everything's chaotic up there right now. It'll probably be a while before I can get hold of the Elders."

"In the meantime, Cole, you'll let us see if we can find some other way out. After all, you can't do anything until you get the location from Leo, right?"

Cole nodded reluctantly.

"That's settled then," Piper said with some satisfaction. "Now let's get to work."

            "There's something bothering you," Phoebe stated as the rest left the living room. Throughout their discussion she had noticed how frequently Cole would look at her.  The looks were sometimes haunted, sometimes longing but always aching. This might be a different Cole, but she could still read him like a book – a fact that was just slightly disturbing.

            Cole sighed. "It's nothing. You just remind me of the Phoebe I knew." He drifted off, lost in memory. His voice became distant, as if he was talking to himself instead of Phoebe. "She died with the rest of my world. I could have saved her…"

_            "Phoebe!" Cole yelled in panic as the force of the vortex pulled her away from him. He turned, the harsh winds causing his hair to whip against his face, and saw Phoebe clinging to the pillars of a large building as the vortex continued to suck in everything in its path. "Hold on! I'm coming!" _

_            "No!" she shouted. "Cole, you have to get out. I can't let you risk your life for me. You're our only chance left to stop him from doing this again. Besides, there's nothing I can do to help you. I'll only be a burden."_

_            "No, I'm not leaving without you – "_

_            "Go," she said, as the tears began to fall. She _had_ to make him leave. She released her hold on the building and allowed herself to be pulled into the vortex. "I love you, Cole. Remember that."_

_            "Phoebe!" he shouted in despair and anguish. He felt the tears well up in his eyes as he closed the portal he created, leaving his world behind. But he would not cry, he thought in steeled determination and cold fury. He would hunt down the man who did this and God help him when he did. _

Phoebe felt her heart twist as she saw the pain and despair on Cole's face. He had loved her doppelganger deeply, passionately and, for a moment, she was envious of her double. Then she remembered. She _had been loved like that once before. And she realised, in that instant, that she had never really stopped loving Cole. She had just tightly locked away those feelings, refusing to acknowledge their existence. She kept telling herself that she didn't love him any more and all she wanted to do was get on with her life. She buried away the memories of everything they had shared together, fearful that the regret would shake her resolve. Soon, the lie she had so carefully built became the only truth she knew. _

She had been so scared of the power of the love that they had shared. She had very nearly gone against everything she believed in because of that love. She had always prided herself on her independence but the love she had for Cole seemed to have a mind of its own, depriving her of all her self control. And she was terrified. She was also weary and tired. Their relationship had been so full of complications and difficulties; it was just so much easier to just throw in the towel. 

But now, staring at the Cole in front of her, she realised just how much she had missed him. The way he looked at her, the way he smiled at her, the way he would gently hold her in his arms... back in the days when everything had seemed so perfect…

Cole's mind was gradually pulled back to the present as the memories faded away. Phoebe's presence had barely registered in his mind. He looked at her and was caught by the brown depths of her eyes, staring at him with wistfulness and something almost like wonder. For a moment, the line between reality and memory disappeared. This was the face that he had missed so much, the only thing that kept him going. Hesitantly, he raised his hand to caress her face, almost afraid to touch her, scarcely believing that she was real and frightened that this was only smoke and illusion. 

Phoebe leaned into his touch, into that familiar hand, that familiar gesture… Then she felt the cool touch of a metal band that had never been there before. She blinked, pulling away and shaking her head, dragging herself back to reality. This was a different Cole and it was a different Phoebe that he was thinking of. "I'm sorry, it's just…"

"I know," Cole said softly, as he pulled back as well, straightening. It had been so tempting to just forget everything that had happened, to imagine that the Phoebe in front of him was the Phoebe he knew. But that wasn't fair to her. And they had far more important things to deal with right now. 

"Anyway, we should go see if Paige and Piper have found anything," Phoebe said uncomfortably, as she stood up and tried to push away all the confusion in her mind.

Cole nodded as he followed after her, each maintaining a careful distance from the other. 

It was three hours later when Leo finally returned. "It's almost impossible to find anything up there," he said wearily. "Anyway, I'll orb you guys there if you're ready."

"Well, we've finished the banishment spell and Wyatt's at the babysitter's so – " Piper began before the ground began to shake. The vases and other glassware crashed to the ground. Shouts were heard in the distance amidst the dull rumbling of the ground. 

"The strain from the breakdown of the barrier," Cole said, raising his voice above the din as he tried to keep his balance, "We don't have much time."

"C'mon," Leo said, as he held out his hands.

They arrived on a large cliff in what seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. Waves crashed against the steely grey stone as the dark clouds gathered above. Apart from the grass that they were standing on, there was no other sign of life.

Except for the man in front of them. He stood with his palms open above a large crystal, staring down at it intently. The crystal was clear, with swirls of blue and purple. Right now however, it was glowing with a sick, dirty, yellow glow. 

            "Cole, you can stop what you're doing right now," Cole said, his tone icy.

            His double looked up, briefly startled. Then a large grin appeared on his face. "Ah, Cole!" his double exclaimed. "You _finally_ managed to catch up with me. There again, you _are _my doppelganger. It figures that you should have at least _some of my intelligence."_

            "I'm nothing like you," Cole said angrily, "you're sick, twisted and insane."

            The look on his double's face hardened. "As if you wouldn't be under the right circumstances?" Then he noticed the people standing behind Cole. A look of shock appeared on his face as his eyes fixed on Phoebe. But the shock quickly dissolved into another mad grin. "How considerate of you to bring company. I always did enjoy performing in front of an audience. And Phoebe, you look enchanting, just like all your doubles."

            Phoebe looked at the two Coles in front of her, disconcerted. They looked exactly the same but they were totally, utterly different. Cole's double – Mad Hatter Cole, as Phoebe had silently dubbed him – was as handsome as the two other Coles she had known. But for all his cheerfulness and charm there was a terrifying insanity in his eyes which Phoebe had never seen before. The closest to it was the look she had seen in her Cole's eyes in the months before Paige vanquished him for real. And that was nothing compared to this.

            It was at that instant that she fully comprehended just how dangerous this Cole was.

            Suddenly, without warning, Cole lunged towards his double, pushing him to the ground, nearly causing the crystal to topple in the process. As he held on to his double's neck, a violet glow began to appear. Then the glow abruptly vanished as Cole was kicked off his double. The other Cole stood up and raised his hand, a grim smile on his face. Cole found himself immobile and involuntarily cried out in pain as he felt the squeeze of an invisible hand around his neck.

            "The spell! Quick, Paige!" Phoebe said urgently, as Paige passed her the paper that they had written the spell on. Phoebe, Piper and Paige read out the spell as fast and as clearly as they could, hoping that the spell would work and that they wouldn't be too late.

            Cole felt the pressure on his neck cease abruptly as his double knelt onto the ground, doubling over with pain. He roared in rage and pain as he disappeared in flames. A sigil appeared, as if it was imprinted onto the flames. The flames soon died away but the sigil lingered for a moment longer before slowly fading away.

            "Oh God," Paige said, reeling, her face pale as she recognised the sigil. 

            "Paige? What's wrong?" Piper asked, touching Paige's shoulder in concern.

            "_I_ was the one who gave him the power to destroy all those worlds." Paige said softly, as realisation dawned on her, her eyes shadowed with grief and horror.

*~ To Be Continued ~*


	3. Chapter 3

Convergence

By Risa

Disclaimer: See Chapter One

Author's Note: Sorry about the really long delay! I haven't given up on this story yet, I just didn't know where to take it for a while. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter and thanks for all the feedback!

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Chapter Three

            "_How? Paige, __what are you talking about?" Piper asked sharply._

            "When I was about twelve, I came down with pneumonia. I had some really strange dreams during that period and they all felt so _real_. There was one where I found myself in a cave. There was a column of purple smoke with bits of glittering silver contained in what looked like glass. A man stood in front of me, banging the glass in frustration, cursing. His face was hooded, so I couldn't see him clearly…

            "I walked up beside him and just looked curiously at what he was doing. He simply ignored my presence. Then, I looked at the glass again and saw that was a glowing blue circle on the glass with the imprint of a palm. I placed my hand on the imprint and turned. The barrier came down. Somehow, I just knew how to get it open.

            "The purple smoke circled round the man and the same symbol we saw earlier appeared, as if etched in flame. Both smoke and symbol seemed to dissolve in the man. Then he just disappeared. But as he disappeared he smiled at me but the smile was so cold…" Paige's voice trailed off lost in memory.

            Then she dragged her mind back to the present. "After that, when I recovered, I just figured that everything was just a dream. But now, seeing that sigil," Paige shook her head, "Don't you see? _I_ was the one who gave him the power to do these things. _I was the one who released that-that __thing."_

            "Paige," Leo said soothingly, "you don't know for sure. Let's go back and do some research first before making any conclusions."

            Paige nodded reluctantly as Leo orbed all of them back.

======

            "Here it is!" Phoebe shouted as the others crowded around her around the Book of Shadows. "The sigil belongs to a warlock named Aidan. Apparently he built up his powers first by absorbing the souls of people and later by absorbing the energy of the worlds he destroyed. Seems like he wanted enough power to establish control over _all_ worlds."

            "Great," Piper said dryly, "What happened to the good old days when just _one_ world was enough?"

            "Why settle for one when you can have all of them?" Phoebe said wryly. "Anyway, he came to our world somewhere in the 19th century. He was going to destroy it like all the others but our ancestor, Althea, stopped him. She was supposed to be one of the more powerful witches of our line. She stopped him but she wasn't able to kill him. All she managed to do was disembody him. To prevent him from using someone else's body to create havoc again, she trapped him in another world, in that cave Paige saw…" Phoebe paused, hesitating.

            "What is it?" Cole asked.

            "The column can only be opened by someone of the Halliwell line," Phoebe said softly.

            Paige stumbled backwards, her mind reeling with shock and self-blame. She lost track of everything and everyone around her. One thought consumed her. _All those people, all that destruction, _I_ was the one who made it possible. They died because of me…_ She turned and ran out of the attic, barely aware of her own actions. All she wanted to do was to get away, to go to some place where she could think. 

            "Paige!" Piper shouted. "You guys stay here, I'll go talk to her," she said, as she ran after Paige.

            "But how?" Phoebe said, almost to herself. "If it was in another world…"

            "It happens sometimes," Cole said with a sigh. "When a person is really sick or in a coma, the link between the soul and the body can get so weak that it's possible for them to leave their bodies, even leave their own worlds. Usually a Keeper manages to find them and send them back." _And I wish someone had got to Paige first,_ he thought, with a touch of regret. _But there's no point thinking about what-ifs. There are some things that are just beyond any person's control. _

             "Well, at least we've managed to vanquish him," Leo said, "I'll have to go up there just to help make sure that everything's in order." He orbed away.

            "So what are you going to do now?" Phoebe asked Cole quietly.

            "I don't know," Cole said, the loss and loneliness evident in his voice. "I've got nowhere to go, nowhere to turn. Chasing after evil Cole gave my life purpose, direction. All I could think about was getting rid of him; I never allowed myself to think about all that I lost or what I was going to do once I got rid of him. Now that it's over…" It was difficult to express the deep sense of isolation and emptiness that filled him.

            "You can stay here. Make a new life for yourself in this world." Phoebe said, placing her hand on his shoulder, trying to offer him some comfort. "Wyatt's still a baby. I think Piper will like the help of an experienced Keeper." She paused, before adding gently, "It's probably what _she_ would have wanted."

            Cole sighed. She was right. The Phoebe that he had loved would have wanted him to carry on with life and not let himself get consumed by grief. He nodded, a small smile appearing on his face, the first genuine smile in a long, long time.

=====

            Piper found Paige sitting on the steps of the front porch, staring blankly at the road. She sat down beside her. "It's not your fault," she said softly, comfortingly.

            "I know," Paige said, still staring at the road. 

            For a while they sat together, silent. Then Paige said, "I never fully understood why you and Phoebe sometimes viewed your powers as a burden that you'll rather not have. Now I know. This power… we can so easily hurt other people without meaning to. One wrong step… The kind of responsibility that goes with having powers – I'm just realizing how heavy it is."

            "Paige, one thing that Phoebe and I have learnt is that for better or worse, our powers are a part of us. It's a part of who we are. We can't run from it. _You_ helped show us that when Phoebe and I wanted to give up our powers. All we can do is to try and do the best we can with what we've got."

            "I don't know," Paige said, her face haunted. "Now I find myself wishing that I never was a witch…"

            "We all do sometimes," Piper said, "But we're stuck with it. If something goes wrong all we can do is try and make amends, learn from it and move on. And you _have_ tried to make amends by vanquishing Cole."

            "I guess," Paige said, the gloom on her face lifting a little.

            Silence fell once more. Piper knew that all she could do now was to be there for Paige when she needed someone and let time do its work. 

=====

            "Wait a minute. You've got _public magic schools in your world? Even state-sponsored ones?" Phoebe said, incredulous. _

            "Yep," Cole replied. They were having lunch together at a restaurant. It had been a week since they had vanquished Evil Cole. Cole was still trying to settle in. There were certain differences between this world and the world that he had come from which he needed to get used to and he still felt a little guilty for staying at the manor. He felt like he was imposing on the Halliwells, even though they had assured him that he had made up for it by babysitting Wyatt and helping to manage things around the house. Hopefully he would soon be able to get a job and get a place of his own…

            "Just how similar _are the different worlds to each other?" Phoebe asked curiously._

            "There are some which are very similar and some that are very different," Cole said. "For example, my world looks a little like yours but the way our society works is slightly different. Some worlds are pretty advanced, some are more backward. Some have patriarchal societies, others have matriarchal… it's pretty interesting."

            "Yeah," Phoebe said, her mind dazed with all the possibilities. Her thoughts were interrupted when the soup arrived. She was about to add some pepper when she noticed that the shaker was missing. "Could you pass me the pepper from the table behind?" she asked Cole.

            Their fingers brushed as Cole passed her the shaker. The contact caused them to stare at each other, transfixed. Phoebe couldn't explain the strange tugging sensation in her heart as her fingers touched his. As she looked into Cole's eyes she felt the all too familiar sensation of falling. She just couldn't understand it. She had only known him for a week… Maybe it was because he was an exact copy of the Cole that she loved. Maybe it was because he was everything that she loved about Cole but without the burden of their history…

            _No,_ she thought flatly. _This can't be happening. I've already gotten over Cole. It's just habit – a bad habit. I'm just too used to feeling this way…_

            "I need to go to the bathroom," Phoebe said abruptly as she stood up.

            Cole watched her as she left. He was still dazed. Looking at Phoebe, he thought he saw the woman he loved. But she wasn't the Phoebe that he knew – she was gone, irrevocably gone. They had many similarities, but they weren't the same person. But still…

            He could see himself falling in love with her.

            But he shouldn't. Cole knew that Phoebe had been hurt deeply by his doppelganger in this world and he didn't think she was ready. And he was worried that they will treat each other as a substitute for the loved ones that they had lost and that wasn't the sort of relationship that he wanted. 

            Cole sighed, once again acutely aware of all that he had lost.

=====

            The tunnel was pitch-black and the darkness felt oppressive. Cole continued walking down the narrow tunnel but there seemed to be no end in sight. He didn't know where he was, or where he was going.

            Then, in front of him, he saw a glimmer of light. He began to run towards it. As he got closer, he could see Phoebe lying down on the grass in a park, one hand over her eyes. "Phoebe!" he shouted, as he ran faster.

            The light was suddenly snatched away and Cole was once again surrounded in darkness. "Phoebe!" he shouted once more, turning in circles desperately, trying to find the light again. 

            Two hands suddenly appeared in the darkness, smeared with blood. A man appeared, his expression pale and ghoulish. "You betrayed us," he said, his tone icy.

            "I – What?" Cole said, confused.

            Another woman appeared beside the man. She looked just as ghoulish as the man. "You betrayed us. You swore that you'll get rid of him," she said accusatorily. 

            "Who?" 

            "Him – the one who destroyed all of us, our lives, our worlds." It was as if Cole was suddenly surrounded by hundreds of voices, each one of them angry, each one of them accusatory. Cole finally realised what they were talking about. "But we vanquished him!" he said in his defence.

            "No, you didn't," a voice said, a voice that was hauntingly familiar to Cole. "You promised, you promised that you'll stop the destruction. But you didn't. He's done it again…"

            "Phoebe – " Cole said, trying to look for her among the crowd.

            "You betrayed us," she said, as she suddenly appeared in front of him. Her eyes were just as cold as the others, filled with blame and anger.

            _"You betrayed us…"_

_            "No! No…"_

_            "You betrayed us…"_

            "No!" Cole shouted as he sat up in his bed. Cole took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. It was all a dream. But why would he have a dream like this if Evil Cole was already dead and gone?

            Unless…

            "Cole?" Phoebe said, standing by the door to Cole's room. "You okay?" She had been up late working and had rushed downstairs when she heard Cole's shouts. 

            "Yeah," Cole said distractedly.

            Phoebe walked inside the room and sat on the edge of the bed. "What's wrong?" she asked softly.

            "Cole. We didn't vanquish him after all. He's still out there."

*~ To Be Continued ~*


End file.
